Scanners and plotters having rotatable drums are well known in the prior art. Some scanners are designed to permit the removal of the rotatable drum. Many such removable drums are mounted at two ends, which makes the removal or attachment of the drum by one person awkward. Scanning drums that are mounted at only one end do exist in the prior art, but typically have a shaft extending from the mounted end. Because of the length of the shaft, such scanning drums are still awkward to mount.
In addition, rotatable scanning and plotting drums of the prior art are typically made of several pieces, each made of a different material. Typically the body of the drum is made of acrylic plastic while one or both ends of the drum are made of metal or include metal rings. The use of different materials, having different thermal expansion coefficients can cause distortion of the drum when its temperature rises--even slightly. In addition, mechanically fastening the plastic and metal drum parts together is fairly expensive.